Dive Brief:

• Pizza Hut has rebuked a manager's message to employees about their required attendance at work as Hurricane Irma approached, according to Fortune. The message, which purported to remind employees of a policy limiting their time off before a storm, went viral after an employee shared it online.
• The corporate office responded, stating that "[w]e absolutely do not have a policy that dictates when team members can leave or return from a disaster, and the manager who posted this letter did not follow company guidelines. We can also confirm that the local franchise operator has addressed this situation with the manager involved."
• Hurricanes Harvey and Irma should remind employers to draft a natural disaster plan, law firm Polsinelli PC wrote in the National Law Review.

Dive Insight:

While the Pizza Hut manager may have been following a policy, the notice drew public attention especially because the area was seemingly subject to a mandatory evacuation.

To avoid such issues, employers may want to draft a broad disaster preparedness plan. These plans can establish an emergency notification system, which determines how employers will communicate disasters internally and externally; a chain of command, which sets up a managerial hierarchy to oversee a disaster; and an evacuation plan with escape routes to get everyone in the organization to safety.

HR is critical to disaster preparedness, and should be involved from the early stages of planning, ensuring that everything from employee safety to employment law compliance is covered.